Fair’s Fair “For Book Lovers”

Until today I was frustrated by all the negative comments about the book business proliferating the web - finally this article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2141725/ shed some much needed light on the subject.

If you own a bookstore (of any description), or visit a bookstore (even occasionally), or enjoy shopping for books (in stores or on the internet) or are one of the 10% of the population of North America who reads - the article is the clearest explanation I have seen yet for what is happening to the business I love.

I, a bookseller for nineteen years, couldn’t understand the ongoing cacaphony of negativity about the book business when I knew readership and book sales have expanded over the years (since the advent of the superstores).

In our city of just over one million people the economy is booming and yet the number of used book stores listed in our yellow pages (just out) has fallen from 30 to 23 - 2 are listed that have actually already closed and rumors persist that 3-4 more will be closing during the next twelve months.

Most of the stores had been operating for over five years with varying degrees of success and only their former owners know the reasons for their closures. This article makes clear how precarious the continuing existence of local stores is becoming - not only here - but everywhere.

The only thing the writer - Tyler Cowen - didn’t seem to realize is that without the existence of stores like ours the supply of books would eventually dry up. Used books stores are often the last stop before the garbage for books. The fewer there are of us - the more books will go directly into the garbage. Ask yourself - when your life changes - when you move to another address, you merge households, there is a death in the family, you change your job, etc., etc., etc - don’t you change in much a deeper way. Well - most people do and when they do - they get rid of their books. They mostly prefer to sell them first if a used books store is handy or donate them to a charity (many of them have also gone out of business locally) if any will accept them but books they are never going to read again are seldom uppermost in their minds - consequently - the garbage is quickest and easiest.

Most people don’t know that ABE, Amazon, EBay and Alibris (the big four online book sellers) have virtually no books of their own. They count on the local used booksellers and hobbyists doing all the work for them - collecting, pricing and listing millions of books - and then charge them too much for the privilege.

It may seem self-serving to tell you it is important to visit your local used books stores regularly to buy, sell and trade your books but IT IS IMPORTANT TO VISIT YOUR LOCAL USED BOOKS STORES REGULARLY … smile.

Please peruse this article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2141725/